Piddington is a Romano-British villa in south Northamptonshire, occupied from the mid-1st century AD through to the early 5th century, with continuous development on the site of a pre-Roman Iron Age settlement. It evolved from a timber roundhouse phase into a substantial winged-corridor villa of stone construction, reaching its most elaborate form in the 2nd–3rd centuries before partial decline and re-occupation in the late Roman period.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The villa lies within the agriculturally productive Nene valley hinterland and represents a typical, mid-ranking estate centre in a landscape densely populated with villas, small towns (such as nearby Towcester/Lactodurum) and pottery industries. It is particularly significant for the unusually long and well-documented sequence of continuous excavation, which has produced one of the most complete pictures of villa development in the East Midlands.
Excavated since 1979 by the Upper Nene Archaeological Society under Roy and Liz Friendship-Taylor, the site has yielded painted wall plaster, mosaics and tessellated floors, a bath suite, hypocausts, and a large assemblage of finds including a tile stamped with the name "Tiberius Claudius Severus," possibly identifying an owner. Other notable finds include extensive ironworking debris, iron tools, military fittings suggesting an early Roman presence, and evidence for sub-Roman activity into the 5th century.
Piddington is a Romano-British villa in south Northamptonshire, occupied from the mid-1st century AD through to the early 5th century, with continuous development on the site of a pre-Roman Iron Age settlement. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a villa site from the Roman period in Britain.
Piddington is classified as a Roman villa — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Roman villa SE of Stokegap Lodge (5.9 km), Roman site at Olney (9.7 km), Romano-British settlement and pottery kilns W of Ecton North Lodge (11.3 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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